Sonoma Valley Teen Services receives two awards

Sue Andrieux, the branch manager of the U.S. Bank in Sonoma, and Dottie Dutton, the vice president of U.S. Bank San Francisco regional office, presented a $5,000 donation last month to Sonoma Valley Teen Services to support the baking program. This is one of several “Skills for Life” programs planned at the teen center, No-Name Café and the Shop, which operate under the Sonoma Valley Teen Services umbrella. Formerly, the organization operated separately as Operation Youth and Valley of the Moon Teen Center, and officially merged this month.

Teens are supervised by program managers, Rebecca Hermosillo and Cristin Lawrence. Food is baked, packaged and delivered for sale at the No-Name Café, which is located on the high school campus. The teens prepare banana nut bread and “Nana Chews” which are dehydrated bananas dipped in chocolate. Additional snacks to be baked and sold are planned. The teens learn about packaging, labeling, delivery schedules, customer service and production costs from adult advisors. Eventually, the teens will distribute goods for sale to other locations. This program gives the teens first-hand experience at running a business – under the guidance of adults.
In February the Sonoma Valley Vintners & Growers Alliance awarded $4,000 to Sonoma Valley Teen Services to kick off the program to help teens learn practical work skills and provide healthy meals and snacks. The No-Name Café has served a variety of fruit and milk smoothies and baked goods purchased from retail stores. Since the new teen center building was opened in 2008, a commercial kitchen was made available specifically for teaching teens about cooking, where science, math and teamwork are practiced in the course of food preparation and cost analysis.

Sonoma Valley Teen Services is not affiliated with the Valley of the Moon Boys & Girls Clubs and does not receive funding from their resources. For more information about the Sonoma Valley Teen Services programs, to volunteer or make financial contributions, please contact Cristin Lawrence at 812.3960 or Rebecca Hermosillo at 939.1452. The Valley of the Moon Teen Center is located at 17440 Sonoma Highway, Sonoma, CA 95476.

Sue Andrieux (l), Sonoma Branch Manager, U.S. Bank and Dottie Dutton, Vice President, Sacramento Regional Office, U.S. Bank (r) presented a check to Jean Hopeman, Sonoma Valley Teen Services board member.